


Feeling Sheepish

by Peppermintfeather



Category: Fruits Basket
Genre: Astraphobia, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Tohru loves her mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:43:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19429048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermintfeather/pseuds/Peppermintfeather
Summary: Hiro Sohma may be a smart-talking kid, but he's still a kid. And all kids are susceptible to fears. Fortunately, Tohru's there to do what Tohru does best: help the Sohmas through their fears.





	Feeling Sheepish

Tohru wasn’t used to the Sohma house being this empty. Shigure had dragged Yuki and Kyo out to get some groceries for dinner, raving something about how it wasn’t fair that poor Tohru poured her heart and soul into every meal and it’s about time they return the favor. 

Only Hiro was with her, waiting for Kisa to be finished running some errands with her mother before she could come over to the house. After grumbling a greeting, he said he was going to wait for Kisa, and disappeared down the hall.

Tohru didn’t mind being left to her own devices. She caught up on housework, tidying thoroughly and efficiently. She focused so strongly on her tasks that she didn’t notice that the sky had darkened and ominous gray clouds had appeared.

“What else?” she mused to herself. “Oh! Hiro’s probably hungry! What does he like to eat again? He likes sweet things, right?” 

She scurried to the kitchen and hummed a merry little song to herself as she prepared a snack for Hiro. 

“Almost done.” She placed a ring of strawberries around the mini sandwich in the center of the plate and smiled at her handiwork. “There! That looks yummy. I hope he’ll like it.”

Now to find the boy. “Hiro!” she called down the hall. “Your snack is ready.”

In response, she got not a verbal reply but a low roll of thunder. Tohru jumped. _That came out of nowhere! Is there a storm?_

She told herself that she should find Hiro before the storm got too bad and wandered down the hall, calling for him.

Another rumble of thunder answered her, this time louder and closer.

Tohru heard something shuffling around the corner, by Shigure’s room. _Is he in Shigure’s room? What could he be doing there?_ She stepped into the room. “Hiro? Are you in here?” She frowned as she looked around the room and couldn’t find him.

A sizzle of lighting lit up the sky and thunder cracked in reply.

When Tohru heard more shuffling coming from the room, she tensed up, worried there was an intruder. “Who’s there?”

But it was no intruder.

There, under Shigure’s desk, lay a tiny sheep. 

The little boy, too worked up with fear of the raging storm outside, had transformed.

Tohru’s expression softened, relieved to have found him. “There you are. Are you scared?”

Hiro did not look up, only curled in close on himself in a tiny fluffy ball. 

Tohru felt a pang in her heart. _He must be so scared._ “Hiro.”

Silence. The only sound that broke the silence was another rumble of thunder. The sheep curled in closer on himself. 

“Hiro,” Tohru repeated softly, kneeling down. “It’s ok. It can’t hurt you.”

Hiro looked up at her with big beady eyes. He let out a shaky bleat when lightning split the sky, and pawed frantically at the floor with the clap of thunder that followed.

Tohru held her arms open for him. “Mom said that it’s just the angels bowling up in the sky. That’s why it’s so loud,” she explained patiently. Maybe her mother was one of these angels now. “The loud sound comes from the pins being knocked over. And the lightning is their big flashlight so that they can see better.”

Hiro’s eyes darted from one side of the room to the other, scanning for anyone else who may be in the house to witness his bout of fear. Illogical, he knew, because Tohru was the only other person in this room, let alone the whole house. And did she really expect him to believe that nonsense about bowling? But he allowed himself to abandon logic at the moment because of how scared he was.

A giant boom of thunder sent him hopping into Tohru’s waiting arms.

Tohru stood up, cradling him protectively against her. “Let’s go into my room, ok? We’ll get nice and snug under the blankets. That’s what Mom and I used to do.” She carried the little sheep out of the room and toward her own, feeling him tremble in her arms. “Blankets always help.”

She reached her room and gently lay in bed, never letting go of the little creature in her embrace. “Let’s get all cozy.” She pulled the comforter around them, hoping it would live up to its name for Hiro’s sake.

A little _poof!_ indicated his reverting back to a human, too tired to maintain his sheep form.

Now she could at least help him talk out his fear. “Here.” She wrapped him in a blanket. _A little Hiro burrito_ , she thought to herself, and had to giggle.

Hiro yanked the blanket closer around himself. “It’s not funny.” His breathing picked up as a crackle of lightning illuminated the sky.

Tohru draped an arm around the boy, holding him comfortingly at her side. She felt him shaking at the ensuing rumble of thunder. “Oh Hiro, it’s ok.” 

“Make it go away.” He spoke in the softest voice she had ever heard come from him. There was no bite behind his words, just a little boy seeking comfort from a common childhood fear.

“I’ll tell Mom to ask the angels to stop bowling.”

As inane as that sounded to Hiro, it made him feel better. 

Until it didn’t. The sky shouted angrily again, a blinding flash of lightning and roar of thunder.

Hiro screamed.

Tohru held him tighter. “Shhh. You’re safe.”

Hiro squeezed his eyes shut. “Make it go away! Make it go away!” His senses were in overdrive. He tensed at each spark of lightning or roll of thunder, hyperaware of the world outside of this cozy little room.

Tohru smoothed his hair. “You’re alright. We’re inside and we’re safe.”

With every streak of lightning, Hiro braced himself, and Tohru would hold him that much closer until the respective rumble of thunder passed. 

Not many words were exchanged, just a scared boy and the girl who had come to care for him and every member of his family so dearly.

Hiro could still see the newest flash of lightning through closed eyes. He yelped and gripped Tohru’s shirt.

She ran her fingers through his hair. “I’m sure it’ll be over soon. I’m right here. It’s always good to have someone with you when you’re scared.”

“If you tell anyone about this, you’re dead.” He scooted closer to her.

Thunder boomed in the distance. It sounded farther away this time.

Tohru ran her hand in soothing circles around Hiro’s back, noting the light tremors as he shook. “The worst is over. It’s farther away. See? It’s taking longer and longer for the thunder to get here after the lightning comes. That means the storm is getting farther away from us.” Another trick her mom taught her.

She continued to coo to him for a few moments more and, to their great relief, the storm did in fact seem to die down. Only the rain remained as a sign of nature’s recent outburst. 

With the storm abating, Hiro’s shaking began to die down too. His grip on Tohru loosened, and his breathing evened out. He dared open his eyes again when a considerable amount of time passed between the latest bout of lightning and its thunderclap.

Tohru’s gentle smile greeted him. “It’s alright. You did such a good job. I’m so proud of you!”

If this were any other day, Hiro would have berated Tohru for patronizing him like this. But she was here, being nothing but a comforting presence in the wake of a storm. He closed his eyes once more, allowing the pitter-patter of rain against the window and that comfort of Tohru’s presence to lull him into sleep.

“Good boy. You’re alright.” Tohru closed her eyes soon after, keeping her arms around Hiro. With a promise to stay right by his side, she too drifted off to sleep. _Thanks, Mom. For taking care of us._

**Author's Note:**

> It's the start of summer storms, and the first thing I thought of was 'what if Hiro is afraid of thunderstorms?' Yesterday and today were bad storms so I wrote this during them.


End file.
